Kashif & Shanghai launches 23rd football tournament

By Avenash Ramzan

The 23rd annual Kashif and Shanghai football tournament was launched yesterday, two days after the Georgetown Football Association announced plans for the second Banks Beer Knockout Cup, which will run concurrently.
Like the Banks Beer Cup, the Kashif and Shanghai competition will run from December 16, 2012, to January 1, 2013, with the Most Valuable Player receiving a motor car.
One of the co-directors of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, Kashif Muhammad, speaking at the launch at the Princess Hotel boardroom, said the tournament has once again been launched in the midst of a crisis which has engulfed local football.
While acknowledging that the tournament has and will continue to be inevitably affected by the current impasse between the Guyana Football Federation and the Georgetown Football Association, Muhammad issued an appeal to the protagonists to bring an end to the standoff in the best interest of football.
“Our supporters and football community as a whole will be aware of the destabilizing challenges that confront local football at this time. Indeed, our own tournament has not remained unaffected by those events,” Muhammad said.
“What is clear to us is that the conflict and division which now afflict Guyana’s football is blighting the game and disfiguring the prospects of our clubs and our players. Even in the midst of the present unwholesome climate, the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation has taken a decision that it will stand by its supporters and by the game as a whole by pressing ahead with its 23rd tournament.”
He added, “We do so even as we issue yet another appeal to the protagonists in the current controversy to bring an end to the counterproductive posturing that is doing Guyana’s football no good. We wish to pay tribute to our sponsors who continue to invest in the noble objectives of our tournament, despite the fact that football as a whole faces turbulent times.”
Muhammad explained that “what now appears to prevail is a senseless flexing of the muscles that is bound to kill the game”, noting that the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation “remains ready, if called upon, to help contribute to a resolution to the current impasse.”
Acting president of the Guyana Football Federation, Franklin Wilson, lauded the organisers for braving the current climate in the football fraternity to stage another year-end tournament. He wished them well, noting that the tournament remains Guyana’s most successful club competition.
Also present at the launch were Carib Beer Brand Manager, Nigel Worrell, and Demerara Distillers Limited Marketing representative, Alexis Langhorne, who both expressed their companies’ delight at being part of the event for the third year in succession.
The final is billed for the National Stadium on New Year’s Day 2013, while matches will also be played in various communities such as Uitvlugt, Beterverwagting and Buxton. The 16 teams have been drawn from the various sub-associations of the Guyana Football Federation.